2015 in Photos, videos, quotes and music!

Photo: Youbloom Festival with the band. L to R: Reuben Teskey, Me, Stephen Nolan (okay…yes…I’m technically blocking him…), Gráinne McCarthy. Photo by Event Photographer 17.com.

Video: Supporting Steady Hands in the Mercantile singing This Isn’t Over. L to R, Front: Aisling McCormick, Gráinne McCarthy, me, Back: Kevin Healy, Simon King, Reuben Teskey.

Photo: What Jason Webley’s nights off during the tour with Welcome to NightVale looked like…more gigs! L to R: Kevin Healy, Stephen Nolan, Jason Webley and Me backstage Bello Bar.

“Songwriting masterclass would seem to be O’Reilly’s specialty…O’Reilly’s songwriting skills are nothing short of genius.” - Julie Bell, Pure M Magazine

“Occupied by a haunting, stark undercurrent that finds its way into each corner of the E.P., Purge is an impressive record that bestrides alternative-pop and indie-folk in equal parts.” - Stephen White, The Last Mixed Tape

Photo: At Shakefest in Charleville Castle (probably watching Hugh Hick killing it). Photo by Stefan Waldeck.

Video: Foundation15 Scene of the Rhyme - Tullamore. L to R: Kevin Healy, Aisling McCormick, Gráinne McCarthy, and me singing Codhladh Sámh

“You’d be left wishing that there was more to enjoy” - Gary White on Totally Irish, 98fm

Photo: The team, ready to go for a radio spot on Culture night in NCAD, broadcasting on Near FM 90.3, Dublin South FM 93.9, Liffey Sound FM, Phoenix 92.5fm and Raidio Na Life 106.4fm.

Photo: Nuair a tagann ocras ort agus tú i mbun craoladh ag Raidió na Lífe. Photo by Aisling McCormick.

“Clearly a seriously talented songwriter and musician” - Ian Martin, Golden Plec

Video: Backing vocals for Loah’s Press Record appearance.

Longlist nomination for Best EP, Best Female Act in Pure M Music Awards

Photo: Applying for grants. 

Photo: Gearing up for a show at the Workman’s club supporting Craig Kierce with Kevin Healy. Photo by Gráinne McCarthy…I think!

Photo: One last one of Culture Night, borrowed from Near FM’s twitter Account!

Thanks so much to everyone who’s come to a gig, listened to my music, and supported me in any way. It means the world to me. 

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful, peaceful Christmas, and that you have fun reflecting on 2015 and ringing in the New Year. 

Grá!

Emma

New Music (mostly Other people’s)

The tendons are still not awesome, but they are healing. 

And while I’ve been waiting for them to heal, I have employed several tactics to stop myself from going INSANE. 

1) I’ve been planning a new EP!

2) I’ve been singing in lots of different things, because LOOK, NO HANDS OR FOREARM TENDONS NECESSARY.

3) I have been trying to merge my consciousness with several different Netflix shows. No tangible results as yet but I’ll keep you all posted. 

Want to see what I’ve been up to? More behind the cut. 

Cross by Loah

What, you haven’t listened to ArtSoul-Goddess Loah’s video for her song cross? Never fear. Here is the video (in which I stood in for another Emma, aka. Feather). Watch it immediately.

Her music makes my heart happy. 

Dulciana, ♀

Well, we’re a choir of ladies, and great lady composers exist, both currently and in the past. Facts. Here are some of the pieces we premiered in our concert in the Freemason’s Hall on November 9th.

Theatre Music

Firstly, I’ve been revisiting the music I wrote for the Anubis Gates in the studio. That has been LOTS. OF. FUN. I’m hoping to have it online over the next few weeks - there are some new tracks there as well as some original ones revisited and re-recorded. Excitingly, I reunited with Ruth over in Current Theatrics to do some music for their pre-halloween show in Vegas, Larry and the Divil by Jonathan East. Most of the reuniting was done over skype but you get the idea. Here’s some music for one of the scenes I wrote for.

I also did some settings of W.B. Yeats’ poems for Myth Understood Productions; they celebrated 150 years of Yeats’ work in a show called Fairies and Folklore, a night of storytelling and general loveliness. There may be another run soon…watch this space!

What I’m up to now

• Gearing up to record a new EP in January. Which right now mostly means worrying about money (be cool), organising rehearsals (no seriously, it’s cool), and thinking about a proper PR campaign (Oh my god why can’t you just be cool!) but also means a lot of fun, working with people I adore, and a chance to make something new. 
  
• Working on a new collaboration with the awesome Donal Sweeney (The guy I wrote MAD with). This one so far involves such glorious thematic guidelines as making tea and a monkey. 
• My friends in La Gracia are releasing their new single (on which I did some backing vocals!), Don’t You Ever Leave, in aid of a much loved family member of the guitarist who’s recently been diagnosed with cancer. More on her story here, Come support her and hear some wicked music in Bello Bar on the 28th - you can get your tickets here in advance. I’ll be doing keys and some backing vocals, so make sure you don’t miss it :D 

Don’t You Ever Leave is now available on Bandcamp! Go go go!

Ah lads did you read all the way to the end? I barely made it here myself. 

Shucks. 

I love you.

Grá,

Emma

P.S. (give me your loves on twitter, instagram, facebook, soundcloud or bandcamp. I accept all loves.)

Catching up!

You know you’re in trouble when your DAD calls you and gives out to you for not updating your blog (although in fairness, my Dad is pretty cool and in this case he’s also right).

I want to update you all, but not keep you all day. So here’s a rundown with some links to stuff that I’ve been doing/ am still doing, and there may be more detailed posts on the below at a later date. 

PURGE EP

I finally produced a new EP in November. Launched the thing in lovely Bello Bar, Portobello, Dublin, with two sets: one with a string quartet and one full band set. It was awesome. I also released a video for the lead track that I’m really proud of, and I’d just love it if you could watch it if you haven’t already. 

You can buy PURGE here, stream it here, and read some reviews here (from The Last Mixed Tape), here (from GoldenPlec) and here (from Pure M Magazine). 

The Anubis Gates

In late 2013, my friend Ruth of Current Theatrics contacted me to ask me if I’d be interested in providing music for the stage adaptation for the Tim Powers cult classic sci-fi novel, The Anubis Gates. She sent me over a copy of the book and I got to work. We premiered it in the Excel Convention Centre during Loncon 3 in August last year. I did a lot of the music live on a loop pedal and there were one or two prerecorded tracks. We had two days to put the show together, half the cast were from Las Vegas, half from Ireland. It was intense, but it was an incredible experience. 

A mini-soundtrack is on its way, just getting the design right and tweaking the sound! In the meantime, you can listen to one of the recorded tracks here - it’s called Horrabin’s Hall. Enjoy!

Discovery Gospel Choir

I accidentally joined a gospel choir in around March last year, did a bunch of gigs and even got onto the Late Late show with the Hot House Flowers! I then sang on their album (funded by a great fundit campaign), and ended up conducting the choir from September to December.  They are an utterly incredible group of people, with members from literally all over the world. There’s so much to learn and to know, so many languages to sing in - it’s wonderful. The choir pretty much took over my life from September to December, so outside of the EP it was pretty much impossible for me to get anything else done! Find out a bit more about them here. 

I’m not conducting the main group anymore, but I’m still singing with a smaller guerrilla section of the choir and helping out with a bit of administration (looking for a gospel choir for a wedding or event? Discovery is pretty kickass. E-mail me on emma.oreilly [at] discoverygospelchoir.com). The group has so much love and good energy to share and I want to be a part of getting that out there. 

Irish Youth Chamber Choir 

In November, following another fundit campaign, I sang as a soprano 2 on the Irish Youth Chamber Choir’s debut EP, Rise up My Love. The music was directed by the brilliant Greg Beardsell and released by Ergodos. I’ve gotta say I think it’s something pretty damn special. The repertoire in it is gorgeous.  Listen to the title track here, and you can buy it and read some nice reviews here. 

We also did a tour. That was fun; music is fun. :D

Other stuff I did: 

Stu Daly’s new EP. Supported Steady Hands, watch here, as well as a few other gigs. Got nominated for Best Female Solo Act in the Pure M Music Awards. Sang a programme of amazing french choral music with a new choir called Dulciana in Dublin, working on another one with some gorgeous Russian music at the moment. Also been translating some poems and trying to get my Irish back up to scratch.

I’ve also got some gigs coming up - check them out here!

Awesome! I was out late last night celebrating the landmark achievement we’ve made here in Ireland by voting yes to the Marriage referendum. I was so worried for my LGBT friends during the whole campaign, and their dignity and determination was just astounding although the campaign was hard on all of them. I’m so proud of my friends (in particular the chunk of them who flew home to vote, and those who went door to dooring) and my family (in particular my dad and my sister) for mucking in to make it happen. I’m not sure we even fully realise the magnitude of what we’ve achieved. But now…I’m very sleepy and a bit sunburned because I went to Africa Day and had a blast, but forgot that suncream is important. So I’m gonna go watch something on nextflix, and pretend I don’t need sleep. 

Thanks for reading everyone! 

Grá!

Emma

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